MANAMA, Bahrain: Bahrain will build up its coastal defences against the rising sea levels by widening its beaches, building higher sea walls and reclaiming the land in front of the shores.
“Bahrain is exposed,” said Mohamed bin Mubarak bin Daina, Bahrain’s oil and environment minister and special envoy for climate affairs.
“The main threat is the rising sea level,” he said in his office at Manama.
According to official estimates, an extreme rise of five meters (16.4 feet) would flood most of the country, including its international airport.
Even a rise of 0.5 to 2 meters could submerge between five and 18 percent of Bahrain’s total land area, according to Sabah Aljenaid, an assistant professor at the Arabian Gulf University in Manama.
Bahrain is the only island nation among the resource-rich countries that lie in the Arabian Gulf. The population and all major facilities are in low-lying coastal areas less than five meters above the water.
Rising sea levels also threaten other islands around the world as global warming melts ice sheets and glaciers.
Ironically, Bahrain is the producer of oil whose pollutants caused the climate crisis.
Bahraini authorities have already recorded sea levels rising between 1.6 and 3.4 millimetres every year since 1976, said Mohamed bin Mubarak bin Daina.
It is believed, by 2050, sea levels could rise up to 0.5 meters, the minister said, referring to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Some experts consider the estimate to be conservative.
Rising seas are exacerbating flooding, threatening coastlines and could contaminate Bahrain’s already scarce groundwater supplies with salty seawater.
“That’s why sea level rise is one of Bahrain’s top priorities,” said Mohamed bin Mubarak bin Daina.
“Wider beaches, rock walls or reclaiming land in front of the shore.. It is part of a “detailed plan” that the minister says will be completed “within 10 years” and funded by the government.
Ranked among the most climate-vulnerable countries among the Gulf Arab states by the University of Notre Dame’s Global Adaptation Initiative, Bahrain also has to contend with dangerous temperatures in one of the hottest regions on Earth.
Extreme temperatures from accelerated climate change could make parts of the Arabian Gulf uninhabitable by the end of the century, experts say.
It has twice broken its energy use record this month as temperatures topped 44 degrees Celsius (111.2 degrees Fahrenheit), causing air conditioners to overload.
“The temperatures are rising and electricity consumed this year has surpassed all previous years,” said Mohamed bin Mubarak bin Daina.
Bahrain, a minor oil producer, plans to cut emissions by 30 per cent by 2035 and expand renewable energy sources to cover 10 per cent of its needs in the same period to help fight climate change.
Over the next 12 years, it also aims to double its green cover and quadruple the amount of mangroves that absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Mohamed bin Mubarak bin Daina said he saw no contradiction in his dual role as oil and environment minister – a conundrum that is common in the hydrocarbon-rich Gulf states.
